Thursday, May 22, 2014

Their Minds Remain Empty

Some people have such an eager thirst for knowledge that they cannot bear to be ignorant of anything. They dip into everything and master nothing; they prefer to learn much rather than learn well, to be superficial and weak in many sciences rather than to be deeply versed in one. Thus they find that on every subject there is someone who excels them and can correct them; they are mere dupes of their own vain curiosity, and can only after long and painful efforts overcome their gross ignorance.

Others possess the keys of all learning, yet never use them. They spend their lives in puzzling out all the known languages, and even would discover that which is spoken in the moon. The most useless idioms, the most ridiculous and mystical characters, are precisely those which awake their passion for languages and excite their industry. They pity those who are contented to know their own language, or at most, Greek and Latin. Such people read all books of history and yet know nothing at all of history; they skim through so many books that they profit by none; they could not well be more barren of facts and principles, but they certainly have the best collection of words and phrases which can be imagined; their memories are oppressed and loaded with them, while their minds remain empty.